"Do you have a four, Jay?"
"No. Go fish."
"Do you have a seven, Zane?"
"No. Go fish."
"Do you have a three, brother?"
Cole frowned. "Yes, I have a three," he grumbled, handing the ice ninja his two threes.
The three ninja had opted for a game night, as there wasn't really anything else to do, besides homework. Kai had stayed at the library late to continue watching for any suspicious activity, since Lloyd was preoccupied with other things this particular night.
"I wonder how Lloyd's date is going," Jay said.
"Don't know," Cole said, clearly focused on the game. "Let's just hope he's able to find Victor's room so we can get the inside scoop on what's going on."
"Hopefully," the blue ninja agreed. "Speaking of 'dates,' how was your lunch with Brooke the other day?"
Cole looked up at his teammate, the game suddenly becoming less important to him. "It was good," he answered. "We talked for a while, then went to go get coffee at the coffee shop."
"Hm, sounds like you had quite the day," Jay replied, wiggling his brow playfully. "What does she think of all the craziness that's been going on?"
"She doesn't like it," Cole admitted. "But she knows about as much as we do right now, which isn't a lot."
"Is she going to the party on Friday?" Jay asked curiously.
The earth ninja shook his head. "No, she's having a girl's night in with Sam and a couple of their friends. Probably for the best, since she's afraid of being out at night now."
"Well, I certainly don't wanna be," Jay said. "Those creeps could be anywhere, planning on doing who-knows-what to whoever crosses their path. And now Lloyd's in the middle of it, all by himself!"
Cole rolled his eyes, his teammate was overreacting, as usual.
"Relax, Jay, Lloyd can handle himself. As long as he doesn't blow his cover, we should be good."
"Cole is correct," Zane agreed. "As long as Lloyd does not reveal he is the green ninja, our probability of succeeding is high."
"Good to know," Jay said, though it was clear he was still not convinced. "Hey Zane, do you have a ten?"
"I do not. Go fish."
"Aw, come on!"
The next hour was shared in mostly silence between the green ninja and his new friend.
Once in a while Lloyd would catch himself sneaking glances at her, or the two of them would share a grin or a funny remark in the middle of their respective homework assignments. Everything had been fairly low-key, which was good for him, since he didn't think his mind could handle much else at the moment. Infiltrating Victor's room had consumed most of his thoughts this evening. He decided he was going to do it after he left Julia's room for the night. Hopefully Victor would still be out and about by the time he got there.
Fortunately, around 10 o'clock or so, Lloyd heard the sound of a textbook being slammed shut.
"Well, that's about all the studying I can handle right now," Julia said. "What about you, Lloyd?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty wiped actually," Lloyd answered, which contradicted his heart rate steadily increasing at the thought of what was to come.
"We should probably call it a night then, don't you think?"
"Yeah, probably," the green ninja said. "Though it was nice studying with you." And he meant it wholeheartedly. For once it was nice to spend a couple hours with a girl without any strings attached. Completely platonic.
Julia smiled. "Same to you. You being here actually forces me to concentrate." The college student then stood up. "I'll walk you back down so you can-"
"Nah, it's okay, I can find my way out," Lloyd quickly interjected. "I'm definitely used to figuring those types of things out."
At first, Julia looked puzzled, causing Lloyd to worry that he was coming off as suspicious. However, after taking a few seconds to process what the young man had said, she simply gave him a smile.
"Alright, sounds good. Maybe we can do this again another time."
"For sure," Lloyd said, returning the smile. After collecting his things, the green ninja made his way over to the door. "So, uh, I'll catch you later, then?" he asked, looking back at her.
Julia nodded. "Catch you later, Lloyd. Have a good night."
"You too."
After he had shut the door behind him, Lloyd sighed in relief. Tonight had definitely not gone as bad as he had feared. Not bad at all, actually. However, this was just part one of his mission.
Now it was time to find Victor's room. He glanced down the hall, deciding which route to take to the boy's floor. He figured that if the second floor was the girls floor, then either the first or the third floor would be the boys floor. And logically, it was probably better to search top to bottom than bottom to top. So he decided he should check the third floor first.
The brief anxiety that had overcome him while he had been in Julia's room suddently hit him with brute force. Every move he made from this moment onward would determine how the rest of the ninjas' stay would be on campus. If he got spotted by Victor, his team's entire mission would be jeopardized, as well as the rest of the students' safety.
Once again, the weight of the world seemed to fall on the green ninja's shoulders. And while he probably should've been used to it by now, the responsibility that was being dumped onto him was overwhelming.
By the grace of the First Spinjitzu Master, please help me get through this.
"First you need to plug the function into the definition of the derivative, then multiply everything out and distribute the minus sign through the second term," Sam explained.
Currently, the young student was helping her ninja boyfriend complete his math homework, which was due the next morning.
Lloyd had gone off to study with his new friend, Julia, which meant that the red ninja was staying a few extra hours at the library to watch for any suspicious activity. At first the thought of staying late seemed tortourous to him, however, he was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Sam had decided to keep him company for the rest of the evening after her night class, which only met on Wednesdays. In addition, she had offered to tutor him and help him with his homework, in which the red ninja was in great need of. If he flunked out of his classes, he couldn't help the other ninja stop Victor, and more importantly, he couldn't be there to protect Sam. So to him, it was imperative that he at least pass his first exam, which was coming up next Friday, the day of the ceremony.
"Now you'll see that every term that doesn't have an h in it cancels out and now we factor an h out of the numerator, which will cancel out the h in the denominator."
Of course, it was hard for him to pay attention to math when she was sitting so close to him. He kept catching a subtle whiff of her signature strawberry scent, enough to stimulate his senses. However, the urgency to get his homework done was enough to keep him focused.
"Okay, so that means that this cancels out..." he drew a line through a term. "And this cancels out..." he drew a line through another term. "Which just leaves this."
"Exactly," Sam said, nodding at the remaining term he was pointing at. "See, you're getting the hang of it."
"Well, I have a great teacher," Kai said, flashing her a grin. "You simplify everything so my pea-brain can understand it."
Sam laughed, nudging the red ninja playfully. "Don't sell yourself short, Kai. You're smart. Some people just need more practice, that's all."
"Hey, that's what I tell you during our Spinjitzu lessons," Kai chuckled. "Still you don't listen to me."
"Well, ancient martial arts is different than basic math," Sam retorted. "One was created for ninja and the other was created to explain the laws of the universe."
"You call this basic?" Kai rubbed his temples. "If this is basic, I'd hate to see what's considered complicated."
"Hey, José."
Kai and Sam's head immediately snapped behind them to see a scruffy-looking dude approach a guy sitting at one of the study tables.
"You going to the party on Friday?" the scruffy dude asked. He was tall with long, blondish hair and baggy clothing.
"Of course, Alan. Wouldn't miss it for the world," the guy they now knew as José answered. Unlike the other guy, he had short, dark hair and a tan complexion.
The first dude-referred to as Alan-gave José a fist-bump.
"Awesome, well, I guess I'll see you there then."
"Likewise. See ya later, man."
Alan then walked away, leaving José to study in peace.
Kai glanced at Sam, who returned the look of concern. The red ninja had filled her in on Jay's discovery yesterday, where José had been spotted giving a group of dudes a brown bag filled with what he had called 'supplies.' Sam hadn't been too concerned prior to that discovery, but now the danger felt very real to her. It was true that there were students walking among them who were threatening. In fact, they were in the very same room as her.
Kai gave her a comforting pat on the back as they both turned back around.
"Come on, let's finish this homework," he said.
As Sam turned her attention back to the next problem, he quickly glanced back at the perpetrator, who had returned to studying quietly with his face back in his textbook. Thankfully, he hadn't been talking to Sam about their mission at all since they had been at the library. That could've been really bad. Guess they needed to be more careful about who was around when talking about private matters from now on.
Let's just hope Lloyd completes his mission alright, he thought. Who knows who could be watching?
